Posts Tagged 'Music'

Recommendation: don’t sync your phone to Windows Media Player using ActiveSync. Just use the sync facility in WMP itself: it’s less problematic (and you can choose which music to sync).

Originally I synchronised the storage card in my phone to WMP on my PC using ActiveSync. That meant, however, that I was never able to do a quick sync of phone to PC because it would always include WMP in the sync (and if left connected it would often decide to re-sychronise just for fun).

One day, as explained in another post (“WMP corrupted … music duplicated”) my music tracks had all been duplicated on the phone, so I deleted them all off the storage card and started again. (That particular problem was probably not related to ActiveSync, but I took the opportunity to do something different).

1. Made sure WMP was not running on the phone (otherwise there can be problems synchronising album art)
2. Plugged phone into PC
3. Because previously I had been sychronising WMP with ActiveSync, when I plugged the phone in, ActiveSync said “Setup must be completed” for Media. I ignored this, and when ActiveSync’s other sychronisation had completed, in Active Sync I selected Tools -> Options -> and unchecked “Media” -> ok
4. Opened WMP on the PC. Clicked the arrow below the Sync tab -> Storage Card -> Setup Sync
It then started synchronising straight away so clicked the arrow below the Sync tab -> Stop Sync
5. Sync -> Storage Card -> Advanced Options -> selected Quality tab -> left Convert ticked and selected quality (I selected maxium – but I have a big storage card)
(On the Sync tab I unchecked “Start sync when this device connects” – I prefer to start it manually)
6. Sync -> Storage Card -> Setup sync
Left “sync this device automatically” checked (otherwise it will only sync specific tracks that you drag into the right-hand pane in WMP)
Removed everything from the right-hand box except what I wanted sychronised (I left “All Music” but that only works if you have a big storage card)
-> Finish -> it starts sychronising

One of several helpful tips from the web page previously quoted is …. on your phone, in WMP don’t select “update library” as it will probably copy onto your phone all sorts of things you don’t want there.

For a while I have been syncing my phone with Windows Media Player on my PC

One day the PC gave a message “Windows Media Player Database Corrupted” …. “the library database is corrupted” and something along the lines of … don’t worry, it will re-build itself. Sure enough I didn’t have a problem with WMP on the PC, but …

Next time I connected my phone to the PC, ActiveSync came up with a message that, for Media sync, setup needed to be completed. I proceeded with the setup.

The Sync then went ahead – but it copied all my music to my phone again – so that every song was duplicated on the phone! (My phone has a 16GB storage card but I have about 9GB of music – so this was a problem!). When I used WMP on the phone it listed every track twice. When I used File Explorer on the phone this also listed every track twice.

Solution
1. In WMP I ended the sync partnership with the storage card (see separate post below)
2. I then deleted all the music on the storage card
– I connected the phone to the PC and ignored the request to setup media sync
– In ActiveSync clicked on Explore -> My Windows Based Mobile Device -> Storage Card -> Music -> deleted all the sub-folders
– however, although the tracks had been deleted from the storage card, WMP on the phone was still listing them all (and if I asked it to play one it unsurprisingly crashed). So…
3. In ActiveSync clicked on Explore -> My Windows Based Mobile Device -> Storage Card -> deleted file WMPInfo (I first did copied it to my PC just in case) BUT the music was still listed in WMP so …
Also in folder \Storage Card\MSMETADATA deleted the file XMEMediaLibrary.mlb (took a backup too)
Now the tracks don’t show in WMP on the phone
4. Now I was ready to follow the prompt in ActiveSync to complete setup for Media and all should be ok
HOWEVER I was inspired to set-up Media sync a different way by this very helpful web pagehttp://www.pocketnow.com/index.php?a=portal_detail&t=reviews&id=1004
How did I setup sync to WMP? See seperate post: “Setting-up Sync of WMP to Phone”

I wanted to end the sync partnership between WMP and the storage card in my phone.
In WMP, to remove a device you are meant to click on the device in the navigation panel (that’s the panel on the left) and select “end sync partnership”. It advises (in several places) that to completely end the partnership you must do this when the device is unplugged.
BUT if you unplug the device the option to end sync partnership is greyed out!

Solution =– Start with the device plugged in
– In Navigation Panel right-click the device
– Select “end Sync Partnership”
– Then a box comes up saying you may want to disconnect the device
– AT THIS POINT (and not before) disconnect the device
Now you can proceed.. and it works!

Why did I want to end the sync partnership? Because my music was duplicated on the storage card – see separate post on “WMP11 corrupted”